Black Lives Matter

They’re angry. Some of them have been sexually abused. And they’re done being silent about it.

Close to 100 people brought that message to the lower Green Monday afternoon as part of a national day of action to protest the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the highest court in the land and to stand with the women accusing him of sexual assault. A separate sit-in took place at Yale Law School, where a U.S. senator (and alum) dropped by to offer support.

A civil rights attorney who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and most recently Stephon Clark — all unarmed black men killed in most cases by police officers — told New Haveners that they’re obligated to fight injustice.

When activist Bree Newsome climbed into the history books by scaling a flagpole on the South Carolina statehouse grounds and removing the Confederate flag, many people assumed that one very fed up black woman had taken spontaneous action.

New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter didn’t play to the crowd at Saturday’s Women’s March in Hartford. She instead challenged the crowd — to examine its own actions toward black women along with Donald Trump’s actions.

When students walked through the doors at the old Winchester Community School, they were welcomed by teachers who knew them — their strengths, their challenges, and their aspirations — Barbara Tinney recalled, telling her old neighborhood’s story the way her neighbors would remember it.

The poster is meant to shock and spark conversation, and it might be coming to a barbershop near you.

The poster features a hooded Ku Klux Klansman with the words “Die Nigger!” stamped across his forehead, white men at a lynching and the mutilated face of Emmett Till at the top. The bottom half of the poster similarly features a masked man. But this man is black.

Deborah Busch Wright was playing the role of fairy godmother, her pixie stick doubling as wand and conveyor of fairy dust. If money were not a barrier, she asked the room full of girls and a smattering of women, what would you wish to do?